Cool morning. Warm day. Hot afternoon. With clouds, but we’re not supposed to get rain. Like yesterday. The sun is still laser hot.
Spent yesterday mostly doing pickups. More stuff for the BOL. More stuff for the house. Prices are generally low so bargains are available. What’s coming through the auctions right now? Portable and window A/C units. Mr Heater propane heaters and clones. Small chest freezers. Shelf units (although they are a staple of auctions they are a bit cheaper than usual). Coolers. Vac sealers, even Foodsaver.
Some of the stuff is just seasonal, some is just the weird ebb and flow.
Today I’m doing stuff around the house. W is giving direction, and we’re to be her minions. I’m scared.
Keep working, keep stacking.
nick
Of course you understand.
As for the rest of your comment, which would be cheaper, paying off congressmung to stop a law from being made or paying off a few judges or prosecutors to make the law mean nothing? Or even paying off one Obama appointee to issue an injunction against enforcing it – despite the Supreme Court stating that district judges cannot issue nationwide injunctions, they continue to do it.
A quarter teaspoon of ghost pepper powder blown into her face will put a stop to that nonsense.
A couple-three years ago I bought a three-pack of ground peppers, ghost, scorpion, and reaper, because The Child was complaining that chili and such was too bland. Years later, the jars are about 90% full, and the only reason that much was used is that she took them to school several times, set them out at lunch, and invited the other students to sprinkle some on their lunches. “Use as much as you want. My dad said it’s ok.” Chaos ensued, at least the first few times; by about the fourth time she brought them in, the students had learned. One girl sprinkled reaper powder on her rice cake, ate the whole thing, and said it wasn’t that bad, then a few seconds later was running around the lunch room, flapping her arms and crying. Boys, as they will, challenged other boys to put increasing amounts of the peppers into their soup or sandwiches and eat it without reacting. Before too long, challenges to manhood and desire to impress the babes weren’t enough to overcome the existential dread of the pepper shakers. Anyway, to get back to where I started this, one boy shook some of one of the peppers into his hand and “accidentally” blew it toward a group of others, disabling them all.
I continue to use the death peppers, but not very much. A quarter-teaspoon of scorpion powder in a large crock pot of chili is much too much. I’ll sprinkle some on the surface, stir it in, sprinkle some more, stir, and hope that I don’t get a clump when I eat it.
H1B isn’t about saving money as much has having a pliant workforce.
Where I currently work, that is the dominant demographic in the building, and restrictions would come at a bad time with regard to the Monkey Trick, especially after Nvidia seemed to throw in the towel on Arm servers this week.
Some propellerheads in the industry want non-Intel hardware at any cost, even if it doesn’t make a bit of sense. We offer AMD CPU AI servers, but that isn’t enough for some Show Ya types in positions of importance at some of the biggest tech players.
Amiga Forever. More than a few my age still bear the scars and want to believe.
I was waiting comments here about it. Maybe remote again, really more offshoring is near. Or someone thinks that AI could replace such people.
Good luck
Low 70sF this morning. Had to take D2 to school for an event. The bus leaves at 630am. She’ll be back later today.
I’m going back to bed.
——–
in a tough economy, where every employee has to contribute, the ‘mythical man month’ surely will come into play? 10 H1-B visas can’t do the work of 5? domestics with actual talent and qualifications, right?
It’s not shoveling dirt, throwing bodies at it doesn’t work.
———
n
I believe, in my heart, that AI could actually replace a lot of the H1B people.
After all, you can use AI to mass produce code snippets that almost sorta-kinda work
Real creative and productive WASP types? Not so much. Although I can see possible utility in AI assistants for them.
As I said here before, programming is easy. Software is hard. I’ve had non-programmer friends tell me that they use AI regularly to program Arduinos for hobby stuff, and it (eventually) works for their needs. After they refine the prompts enough.
Of course, there’s a difference between building a homebrew antenna rotator from a garage door opener and an Arduino, and a money transfer banking app. Or a GIS system. Or a controller for a medical device.
Commodore 64 and Amiga, my favorite PCs of all time.
Atari and Amiga are my favorite early systems
The Amiga with Video Toaster was an amazing machine, years ahead of its time.
———-
I went back to sleep and stayed there for a while.
Up now and coffee is slowly filling the mug.
n
Yeah, there are a couple programmer blogs I have read where management is basically twisting the programmer’s arm to use AI.
It basically doesn’t work, requiring trial after trial after trial, breaking things that did work the first time when they attempt to fix things that didn’t work. Obvious bugs and errors – and even worse – subtle bugs and errors.
Like anything computing related, it’s not the AI of today, it’s the AI of 10 years from now…
n
Fusion power. It’s just around the 10 year corner.
There is a growing awareness in the business world that if you use AI to eliminate all the intro and beginner jobs, you won’t have anyone ready to do your middle and upper tier jobs.
AI breaks the path to advancement by eliminating the first steps.
n
As minimum wage laws have been doing to teenagers’ employment. It’s a rare teenager, or even 20 year old, who is actually WORTH $20/hour. But if kids never get those “entry level” jobs, because there ARE NO “entry level” jobs, then they’ll never get promoted OUT OF those entry level jobs that they didn’t have.
Because the ACTUAL “minimum wage” is ZERO.
True, but it’s not much different than hiring staff augmentation contractors to do all of your basic programming jobs or outsourcing your programming to Turdsinthestreetsia.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-15116065/103-year-old-American-workwear-icon-sold-dickies-battles-financial-struggles.html
Moved from Tx to Cali. Continued to go downhill.
Their quality and design are not great. Their jacket that LOOKS like a Carhartt has unusable pockets in a weird place, that ripped thru their thin lining immediately. (I have two of them). All the materials in the jacket are lesser than the Carhartt. (I have three Carhartts in different weights.) Their oversized workshirts became popular with gangs because they were so big. The more stylish shirts are not the thick tough material of the old ones, and the collars don’t hold their shapes, nor do the buttons.
I think their current set of new masters cheaped out on everything, which the (real) market noticed, and stopped buying. Celebs don’t care if the pockets work, or if the lining is too thin. Workers do.
n
but it’s not much different
– it is though. Reducing the number of starter jobs has bad effects, but eliminating them has more bad effects.
And it turns the next level up into managers of the AI inputs, outputs, and work, pushing the entry level stuff up a level. Instead of managing people, they are poking at black boxes hoping to get an acceptable result.
n
Here, suddenly, it is September 20. A beautiful day. The sunlight is different than just last weekend. Sure, it’s still on the hot side with highs of 93f for the last week or so. But it’s cooling off at night to mid and low 60’s. The humidity is down. I turned the a/c off at the beginning of the month. Yeah, it gets to 81 or 82 in here. The t-stat is set at 80f anyway.
The pet mesquite tree is starting to shed. The wild grapes are shedding leaves. No fruit this year that I saw. Some of the oaks are starting to drop acorns. Looking at a few trees, this year will have a good crop of acorns. Some of the elm trees are starting to drop leaves.
Time to rummage up the house grade saucers for the potted plants. Wrap faucets. Drain and store away garden hoses.
There have been years when the first cold snap of killing frost is mid-October. There have been years where the first snap is the week after Thanksgiving.
Time to bring in a few bags of pellets for the wood stove, too. Who wants to tote that stuff from the barn to the house when it blowing icy rain? Anyone? Not this guy. Been there.
Do the Boy Scout thing. Be Prepared.
It’s a good feeling, actually, when the first blast of Winter comes howling in at 7000 mileş a hour and the temps drop from 85f to 35f in an hour to look out the windows and just smile.
Buddy the Beagle still needs walking. Dang it. He should work for the Post Office.
Cleared out some of the stuff W wanted cleared. Time to make one more run.
n
I think it will be a cold winter here. Just a feeling. From looking at the trees and the way the various birds have vanished. No robins yet. I ain’t the Farmer’s Almanac after all.
I found some cans of chicken in the back of the pantry. The best by date was January 2022. I opened one up and had it for a snack this morning. Only the texture was slightly off, but I honestly attribute that to the brand. It’s Swanson canned chicken, and even new its texture is a little funky. That’s the main reason I quit buying it.
Canned chicken is sort of weird. Chicken doesn’t can well. It sort of melts in the process. Vac sealing and freezing cooked chicken isn’t much better. But raw chicken vac seals and freezes perfectly.
Keystone turkey? Canned turkey is great!
I said
Then Greg said
Heath Ledger’s Joker was overrated.
Back to me.
I guess I had the 1989 ? Batman movie conflated (I think that’s the word I want) with the newer movie. Maybe I missed the entire scene about dancing in the pale moon light with the devil.
Anyway. The new movies are good. Michael Caine as Alfred is really great.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-15116065/103-year-old-American-workwear-icon-sold-dickies-battles-financial-struggles.html
Moved from Tx to Cali. Continued to go downhill.
Their quality and design are not great. Their jacket that LOOKS like a Carhartt has unusable pockets in a weird place, that ripped thru their thin lining immediately. (I have two of them). All the materials in the jacket are lesser than the Carhartt. (I have three Carhartts in different weights.) Their oversized workshirts became popular with gangs because they were so big. The more stylish shirts are not the thick tough material of the old ones, and the collars don’t hold their shapes, nor do the buttons.
I think their current set of new masters cheaped out on everything, which the (real) market noticed, and stopped buying. Celebs don’t care if the pockets work, or if the lining is too thin. Workers do.
That is just sad by ruining a great brand like Dickies. I love their socks but their socks lately suck, I seem to get only 4 or 5 wearings before they fade away in the washing machine. I now get their XXL sized socks from Big River and those fit me well, just don’t last. I wear size 12 so I have no idea what is going on here.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HGMGWJX?tag=ttgnet-20
If anyone has recommendations for heavy-duty canvas cargo shorts, I’d like to hear them. I bought Carhartt a few months ago and they’re ok but not as heavy, and presumably not as durable, as the Carhartt I got 20 or so years ago.
I am being told that I cannot have multifocal lens replacements for my cataracts due to my glaucoma. So I will go with a distance lens and wear readers for computer and reading. Such is life.
I have lost about 15% vision in my left eye and 10% vision in my right eye. It is not bad so far, the drops seemed to have arrested it for now.
Last week(ish) I mentioned that I’ve resumed watching the MCU movies while I exercise, that they’re pretty bad, and that Shang-Chi was just plain bad, no “pretty” about it.
Eternals was worse. If my brain weren’t oxygen-starved most of the time I watched it, I’d really resent that two and a half hours. In fact, even with the brain not working, I resent it. It wasn’t even part of the MCU, no shared continuity or characters or anything. The throw-away one-liner about Thanos killing half of everyone with a snap wasn’t enough to paper over that gap.
The next movie in the series, a Spider Man, is supposed to be pretty good, so that’s something, but the next three are reportedly wretched. Maybe if I step up the exercise level there won’t be any oxygen getting to my brain and they won’t bother me.
If anyone has recommendations for heavy-duty canvas cargo shorts, I’d like to hear them. I bought Carhartt a few months ago and they’re ok but not as heavy, and presumably not as durable, as the Carhartt I got 20 or so years ago.
I wear “Wrangler Authentics Men’s Canvas Utility Hiker Short” but I would not call them heavy duty at all. Medium duty at best.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075MX7N68?tag=ttgnet-20
Lynn, did you consider getting one eye set for close and one for distance? It’s not for everyone but some like it.
@SteveF
Duluth Trading’s Fire Hose line:
https://www.duluthtrading.com/s/DTC/mens-duluthflex-fire-hose-relaxed-fit-9-cargo-36331.html?feature=pdpbu606959inch
Hilarious ‘In your face’ response to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse by the Heartland Institute.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/09/19/hilarious-in-your-face-response-to-sen-sheldon-whitehouse-by-the-heartland-institute/
USAA sent an e-mail pushing “SafePilot”. It’s a phone app. You get 15% off for enrolling. Or, maybe 10% says the website.
I’m sure the app wants more than your location. No problem, I have a spare phone aka tracking device.
So I called. If I understood correctly, you have to drive at least 300 miles a month to keep the discount. Ok, that filters out folks that don’t tote their smarty pants phone everywhere.
Anyway. Trash day is Friday. It’s a mile to the paved road. So I take my little plastic grocery store bag of used k-cups and snotty paper towels and whatever else and often a small box of cardboard and junk mail. Then I go to the HEB. Because that’s where the half and half for my coffee is and yeah, beer, too.
It’s four miles one way. Eight miles once a week. Heck, with a trip to new Tractor Supply for dog and cat food, round it all up to 10 miles a week. No, really. The truck’s oil was changed when I bought it and I still have 2000 miles to get to the 5000 mile number.
I don’t go anywhere. Where? Sure there are good places to go eat. But alone? Nope. Ditto for going to Fort Worth or Odessa. Nice folks there but they don’t come here, either, so….
Are We Done With Political Violence (or Could It Keep Spiraling)?
John Sexton 4:00 PM | September 20, 2025
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2025/09/20/are-we-done-or-just-getting-started-n3807014
I just checked and see that the ultra-left lunatics that have been rioting, burning, attacking unarmed people, and violating laws with impunity while Democrat AG’s studiously look the other way and the LSM denies they even exist are not only still free, but are closely held in the bosom of the Democrat Party.
So, no John.
Curious. How are the numbers figured? From what baseline? Some test from 20 years ago?
Not trying to be an ass. Just wondering.
Last Summer, I caught this line, inserted by AI into our code, shortly before a factory release.
char *ptr = calloc(0, size);
ptr does reference a block of memory, but the size is nondeterministic on most systems.
Manchin Levels AOC for Disgusting Remarks About Charlie Kirk, and Exposes Enormous Problem for Dems
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2025/09/20/manchin-response-to-aoc-and-warning-for-dems-n2194155
I have a hard time finding any shred of respect for this fatuous milquetoast. He had a front-row seat for years and watched people like AOC, Omar and the rest of the TardSquad pollute his party like raw sewage in a swimming pool, and rather than stand up and fight he sat there and hardly said a word.
Arm is the spiritual successor to the 6502 which powered the Commodore 64 as well as the Acorn BBC Micro.
Acorn RISC Machine.
Private equity. That’s not good.
Dickies will end up as a licensed name on Chinesium.
The new Fire Hose shorts have much thinner material and a ugly brand tag on the back pocket.
Duluth’s entire product line is declining in quality.
IIRC, the “Pale Moonlight” line references a “Twilight Zone” episode.
Chris Barrie did an excellent riff on “Alfred” as Hillary in Angelina Jolie’s “Tomb Raider” movies from 20 years ago. Now that he’s the right age, Barrie should top the list of actors for Alfred when WB reboots “Batman” again.
You’ve already seen “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, right?
Change the oil at least once a year, and use a decent – not from Big River – probe to check the moisture in the brake fluid periodically.
You’ve already seen “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, right?
No. Not yet.
I used to get that: “Why don’t you ever visit us?” “Why don’t you ever call me?” Almost always I’d been the last one to reach out to the other and, you know, you could call or email or visit.
Eventually these complaints withered away as people realized that I now only reciprocate the effort provided by the other party.
Reason #10 why I choose not to have friends.
Duluth Trading’s Fire Hose line:
– I used to go thru the catalog page by page, but the prices were too high. The belt I wanted was $70! I did finally pick up a pair of the firehose jean style pants and they are indeed very thick. Most of the Duluth line is made in china from what I can tell.
There are two stores here, each about 15 miles out of town, so you can go and finger the goods if you want.
Their return policy is pretty generous too, or used to be.
——-
Dinner was three pounds of fillet mignon, sauteed brusselssprouts, and shelf stable take and bake bread, with a chocolate mouse fudge cake from costco for dessert. It’s our goto special dessert.
The steaks were delicious and pretty much done exactly the way I was trying for.
Full and sleepy is the order of the day.
n
I wear Wrangler cargo shorts if I am wearing cotton. They aren’t canvas style, aren’t heavy, and get thinner and thinner until they tear. My 5.11 tactical cargo shorts are a nice compromise between sturdy and light in cotton blends.
But most of the time I wear synthetic material shorts now, because they are light and breathe… I particularly like a style of Under Armor that is made from ripstop material. I haven’t seen them in a while though, and they are NOT fire or heat resistant. None of the synthetics are.
You might try some real workwear that is FR, Fire Resistant. That stuff tends to be thicker and stiffer.
n
Well, starting to get some squeaks out of the swamp cooler on the roof.
That’s too bad, I was really hoping to get through the rest of the year without having to go up there and oil pillow bearings. Since it is still in the 90s through the next week or two there’s no getting around it.
When the fan is off I can hear that the water pump is also starting to labor. Chinesium.
My Roomba clone has developed a high pitched squeal, impeller bearing frequency. More Chinesium. It arrived 23 June, so less than 3 months. The one before it lasted 1.5y, the one before that 3.5y .
you pretty much have to run as fast as you can just to stay in place these days.
“Why don’t you ever visit us?
Yeah. Been there. But ya know, I didn’t move 120 miles away to San Antonio. So my not visiting is my fault exactly how?
There are reasons we live so far away from our families. We love them, but we live our own lives.
n
I’m heading to bed. I’m tired, so why not?
n
Curious. How are the numbers figured? From what baseline? Some test from 20 years ago?
Not trying to be an ass. Just wondering.
They have a special machine that generates transient little points of light in your field of vision and you click a button when you see the light. If you miss seeing the point of light then that counts against you. Glaucoma causes optic nerve to start dying in the outside corners of your eyes so you get an ever growing dead zone in that corner. It is not happy thing to watch happening to your self. I cannot see to the side of my eyes anymore and I get freaked out when somebody starts talking next to me when I did not know that they were there. My wife does this to me all the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_field_test
The newest visual field test machine is just a VR glasses with a wireless clicker.
@EdH, I had a swamp cooler when I lived in a single wide trailer in the Phoenix area. I couldn’t believe how cold it could get around 2am. I was in that place 3 years and I think I changed pumps or blowers, or pads every year. Maybe even more than one per year. The water was hard on the stuff.
——–
Of course during monsoon season, when the humidity rose above 3%, the cooler didn’t work so well. My dad shipped me a window A/C unit by Greyhound freight, and I used that part of the year for the next year or two. Worked well a couple of months out of the year.
———
And now to sleep, perchance to dream…
n
“The new Fire Hose shorts have much thinner material and a ugly brand tag on the back pocket.
Duluth’s entire product line is declining in quality.”
Good to know. They discontinued the style and color of the ones that I preferred. I have one pair left, and they are about done after ten years.
I don’t get the hype around these, at least, not for real-world use. I have a small jar of habenero powder – that’s plenty hot enough for actual cooking. With the super-hot peppers, how are you going to measure the miniscule quantities you’re going to need?
I guess they’re for macho types who want to install seatbelts on their toilets…
There are some really good Indian tech people. Unfortunately, the vast majority…are not. You get what you pay for, but CxO bonuses for cost-cutting tend to be paid out before the consequences come home to roost.
Companies are going to be too short-sighted to act on that, for exactly the same reasons that companies out-source to India, Pakistan, et al.
Also power steering fluid if you’re in a really cold climate, say -30C. Nothing quite like the feeling of trying to steer, having nothing happen and then feeling a ‘pop’, after which, the steering is too heavy to turn one handed. I went through several pressure hoses until I managed to get all the old fluid out of the steering box.
Up early, for me on a Sunday with nothing scheduled anyway…
79F. Sunny.
Coffee is almost ready.
Had a weird dream I was visiting campus after 35 years. Since we were talking about swamp coolers, that made me think about the trailer home I lived in, which made me check google streetview to see if anything was still there. As a parcel of land 1 block from the university, no, nothing remains. That led to poking around on the campus map and using streetview within the university grounds. I’m surprised that one of the buildings I worked in is still there, still in use. It was old and run down back then!
Lots of change and development in 35 years.
Now to decide if my back hurts enough to lay back down, or if I should start my day.
n